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This is an Asian species, from the region of North China, and until 2008 had not been recorded in Britain. Then, on 5th September, a specimen was recorded from a moth trap in Weybridge, Surrey. Apparently there was a record of one in Kent in 2007, but I cannot find details of that.

The European Boxwood and Topiary Society website (www.ebts.org) states that the moth was known to be devastaing Box throughout Europe by 2007, and that this occured not by natural spread of the insect but by commercial movement of infected plants where leaves are carrying undetected eggs

The Box Tree Moth was first recorded in this area by Tim Harris in his Belgrave Road (Leytonstone) garden on 27th July 2015, and numbers increased during 2016 and more so in 2017. I first noticed the larvae on the Box hedge around the patio of the Poppy Pantry in the City of London Cemetery in July 2018.